So much so, we've tried to ignore it. Ten years ago, the Oilers, our Oilers, were playing their first season in Tennessee.

To that end, I probably should have stayed away from Baptist Sports Park this week.

If Oilers fans were angered and excited at the same time when the Titans made it to the Super Bowl at the turn of the century, one can only imagine how they would feel if they saw this.

It might seem minor, but anyone who Luved Ya Blue needs to deal with the emotions.

Actually, you don't even have to have been an Oilers fan to be bothered by the display in the lobby of the Tennessee Titans' practice facility.

Photographs torment

There, in full view high on the wall, are the jerseys of the retired

Houston Oilers
. And around the room, at eye level, to torture you even more, are the group photos of each Houston Oilers team. I repeat, the
Houston
Oilers.

It's like walking into your former wife and new beau's house and seeing photos of the time you two were together. It just ain't right. This is our history, not Nashville's.

Yes, it has been 10 years since she left, check that, was taken from us by Evil Bud, and we're really supposed to be over it.

But it was an ugly divorce and many of us are grieving. We never went to therapy. We didn't sit on Dr. Melfi's couch and talk this through. We sulked for a few years, then grabbed the first little hottie to come along.

She's expensive, but she's cute. Problem is, she's young and not too bright. (Let's hope that dumb Texans jokes don't become as popular as the dumb blonde ones.)

She doesn't know what we know and hasn't seen what we've seen. She thinks Earl Campbell is a sausage maker, Giff Nielsen's a television sports guy and Oliver Luck's a soccer executive.

Blast from the past

She wasn't even born when
Martin Luther King
Jr. was assassinated. (Heck, for that matter, she wasn't even around when Tupac got shot.) But our Oilers were there for us.

When you look at old photos, you can't help but laugh at the fashions.

Sideburns didn't show up on the Oilers until 1972, thanks to Elvin Bethea — whose jersey is one of those hanging in retirement in Nashville though he never played there — Kenny Houston and Allen Aldridge.

Well, actually, Lynn Dickey tried to bust them out the year before, but looked odd with scraggly burns and a Fu Manchu mustache that was missing a lot of fu and chu. Anyway, we believe his major hair contribution to the franchise came from the coiffure he sported at the time — a huge puffed up 'do that looked like a wig.

We see that in 1973, running back Bill Thomas was the first Oiler to wear a full beard, but he was put to shame the next year when punter David Beverly had the combo Grizzly Adams-Bill Walton look.

In the 1975 photo, Bum Phillips looked like a man in serious need of a tan and some long pants. Unfortunately somebody told him.

The next year, our beloved Bum broke out some high-water polyester pants with a diamond-shaped stitching design that took all your attention away from the not-so-matching leisure suit sports coat. But he wore his cowboy boots, baby.

Something happened at the 1982 photo shoot. The quarterback row of Archie Manning, the TV guy and the soccer exec were looking off to the left, as was perhaps a third of the team. Nielsen was laughing.

You have to go to another wall to check out that sweet No. 1, another retired jersey, who showed up in the 1984 photo. Speaking of retired jerseys, just looking at 74 and 63, those of Bruce Matthews and Mike Munchak, makes you think of Oilers pride, whether you were a fan.

While walking down memory lane, you notice the Astrodome didn't show up in pictures until 1972, and that Billy "White Shoes" Johnson made sure to be on full cheese for every camera click.

And you can't help but think of the stories that go with each photo. Good or bad, those are our tales. "Stagger Lee" belongs to Houston.

You'll get stuck trying to figure out the background on the 1997 photo. It looks somewhat like the State Capitol in Austin, but the divorcee in you says, "We never went on vacation, uh, training camp there."

Oh, that's when her new life started. She's coming to town Sunday. Mere mention of her makes some of you want to cry, and it is understandable why many of you really hate the ex.

The Oilers always will be our first. But she changed her name and moved on.